Honourable senators, it is a privilege to stand in this chamber today to pay tribute to our late colleague Andrée Champagne.

The best way to begin is with the fact that Andrée was a force to be reckoned with. She was an inspiration, role model and advocate for women all over the world. For Quebecers, she will always be their “belle Donalda,” their TV heroine for 14 years.

Her accomplishments are far too lengthy to enumerate here today, so I will try to highlight a few.

Andrée’s life as a performing artist began as a 17-year-old with the famous television series “Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut,” but she was also an animator and wonderful singer, a businesswoman dedicated to making artists’ lives better. As a host, she presided over the opening ceremonies of Montreal’s two greatest world events, Expo 67 and the 1976 Olympic Games.

Andrée managed to merge the two main tracks in her life, “artiste and politician,” to powerful advantage. Her fierce determination to protect Quebec, both language and culture, was evident throughout her political career.

First elected as a Progressive Conservative in her riding of Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot in 1984, during nine years in the House of Commons she served as Minister of State for Youth and became the first woman Deputy Speaker.

In 2005, Andrée Champagne was named to the Senate of Canada, where she became the outspoken soldier for linguistic minorities. She herself cited the official languages portfolio and work in the Francophonie as her greatest accomplishments.

Senator Champagne generously took me under her wing when I first arrived here in 2009. She was graceful, articulate and tenaciously passionate.

May I share with you a most memorable moment we had after her retirement. She had just returned home after a community concert where she sang accompanied by her husband Sébastien, a well-recognized pianist. She was so humble and spoke with joy, almost surprised at the enthusiasm of the audience. It gave her such satisfaction to delight an audience once again.

Andrée had many passions in life, but her love for Sébastien, her children Liliane and Patrick, and her granddaughter Laurence were her grounding forces and the inspiration to remain hopeful and to always look ahead.

Colleagues, in closing, I would like to quote from Andrée’s foreword in her autobiography Je reviens de loin..., published in 2008:

My greatest desire in writing this book is to encourage you to look around you. Today and every day that you spend on this earth, take the time to share all of the love in your heart. Every breath we take is a gift.

Honourable colleagues, it is my turn to rise to pay tribute to Senator Andrée Champagne, who passed away last week.

I met Andrée in the Senate. When I was appointed to the Senate, she had been already been a senator for four years. Although she was appointed by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, she decided to join the Conservative caucus. That bold choice was a clear sign of her independent spirit. I must say, honourable colleagues, that I was humbled to serve alongside this woman, who had a larger-than-life personality.

Everyone knows that, before beginning her political career, Andrée was a wonderful actress, renowned in Quebec. She left her mark on several generations with her inspiring portrayal of Donalda on the series “Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut”. However, much to her dismay, that role seemed to stick to her, and all people wanted to talk to her about when they met her was Donalda. Why did that character she played have such a deep emotional impact on Quebec viewers? In my opinion, it is because Andrée embodied that character. Andrée was not really acting when she portrayed Donalda’s qualities of gentleness, wonder, determination, love, selflessness and courage. The 17‑year-old actress candidly and generously revealed her true self to the public as she likely very intuitively threw herself into the role, body and soul. That is what I believe made such a big impression on the men and, especially, the women of Quebec.

Senator Champagne was a woman of integrity, she spoke her mind, and she was sure of herself. She may have looked frail or even fragile, but she showed extraordinary strength of character. She made good use of those qualities as Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 1990 to 1993. At caucus meetings during my tenure as Leader of the Government in the Senate from 2013 to 2015, Andrée never hesitated to speak up about issues she was passionate about and everything that mattered to her. She had a gift for exploring new perspectives and raising questions that encouraged us all to see issues from a different angle.

Senator Champagne had many qualities. Many of her parliamentary colleagues, MPs and senators alike, did not know that she had a magnificent voice. In the 1960s, she recorded a number of magnificent songs, including “Tu es venu”.

When she retired from the Senate in 2014, I concluded my tribute to her with words by the famous singer, Barbara: “Tell us, when will you be back?” This time, all I can say to our wonderful Andrée is goodbye and all the best. Thank you for everything, Senator Champagne.

Honourable senators, I too would like to say a few words to honour the memory of one of the most famous women in Quebec, the Honourable Andrée Champagne.

Long before she got into politics, first as an MP, then as a minister and finally as a senator, Andrée Champagne became one of Quebec’s biggest television stars when she was chosen to play the role of Donalda in the televised series “Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut”.

As was mentioned, she was a young girl at the time, barely 17 years old, and no one could have guessed how successful that soap opera would become. For about 15 years, the character of Donalda was a national treasure.

However, this remarkable destiny also illustrates some of the stereotypes that can unfortunately apply to women. The Donalda character was completely submissive to her husband, a dreadful miser who cared only about his money and the power it gave him. The director selected Andrée Champagne because she had blond hair and light-coloured eyes. This gave her a softer image, perfect for the role of victim. That image of a sweet blonde fit her so well that she struggled to find other roles when the signature series ended, even though she dyed her hair red. The real Andrée Champagne was not a dominated or passive woman in the least.

She defied stereotypes by becoming a businesswoman and opening the first talent agency in Montreal. That is where she started to advocate for artists by putting an end to the era’s dubious practice of producers taking a cut of the artists’ modest earnings.

Her knack for business eventually led her to head the Union des artistes.

Then, in 1984, she entered politics alongside Brian Mulroney in hopes of amending the Copyright Act, which the prime minister did at the end of his mandate. In doing so, she was defying another of the Quebec arts community’s conventions. Ms. Champagne was a Conservative and a staunch federalist.

That’s why Ms. Champagne was so surprised when Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin offered her a seat in the Senate in 2005. She sat as a Conservative, of course, but, as she noted, she would also try to inject a progressive element back into the party.

That wasn’t the end of her troubles. On a diplomatic tour, she contracted a very serious illness and nearly died. During her recovery, she wrote a book on this ordeal entitled Je reviens de loin... Her key message in that book resonates as we go through this pandemic.

Today and every day that you spend on this Earth, take the time to share all the love in your heart.

I will leave you with the words Ms. Champagne used to sum up her life:

A girl who worked hard, pushed boundaries, went for it and loved a lot.

Thank you.

Honourable senators, since I only have about a year to go here, I’ve been thinking about a lot of senators I’ve worked with over the last years, including Mike Forrestall, Sharon Carstairs, Norman Atkins and, of course, Andrée Champagne.

I had the pleasure of working with Senator Andrée Champagne in committee. It was a rewarding collaborative experience. She was always a lively and curious ray of sunshine. It was a joy to work with her.

Senator Champagne passed away on June 6. Many of you may not be aware of her fascinating career. She was a renowned actress in Quebec and French-speaking Canada. For 15 years, she played Donalda on the television series “Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut”. She was a popular star. She was also a singer, host and business woman who worked to advance the cause of artists and to improve their living conditions. A staunch federalist, she got involved in politics in 1984 and became the member of Parliament for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot in the Mulroney government and then a member of his cabinet. After the Conservative government was defeated in 1993, she returned to acting on the small and big screens.

In 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin invited her to sit in the Senate, where she was very involved in files concerning linguistic minorities and the Francophonie. She was also elected president of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie in 2013. She retired from the Senate on June 17, 2014, and received the Order of Canada in 2017.

I want to extend my condolences to her family. I was privileged to have the opportunity to work with her.

I am also sure that Andrée is having a little smile and chuckle at my beautiful speaking of the French language. Thank you.

Honourable senators, people in French Canada and Acadia know Andrée Champagne as an artist, first and foremost. Originally from Saint-Hyacinthe, she captured the imagination of generations of francophones in her starring role as Donalda in a popular Radio-Canada television series called “Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut”. She took on the legendary role at the age of 17, and it has been a part of her ever since, so much so that we came to believe the actor was the character, a submissive woman and a victim of fate.

At that time, families would gather in front of their television screens to be moved by the sad and wretched life of this woman who could not live out her love story with her handsome Alexis and who, to save her father from bankruptcy, agreed to marry a man consumed by greed. Many of us, women in particular, were dismayed by the inability of this citizen from Sainte-Adèle to escape her fate and live life to the fullest.

In this case, this illustrates how much fiction can diverge from reality. When she entered politics in 1984, those who knew Andrée Champagne only from the small screen discovered that she was a strong and determined woman who seized life by the horns to become a seasoned Quebec and Canadian politician, unafraid of standing up for her beliefs and taking her place as a citizen.

Unlike many of you, I did not have the privilege of knowing Ms. Champagne while she was a senator. However, as an Acadian, I clearly remember her dedication to defending the rights of Canada’s linguistic minorities. Although she herself was not from a minority community, she demonstrated tremendous sensitivity to linguistic minorities in her role as deputy chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages, which she was a member of for several years. Over the course of her many appointments, important studies were undertaken, especially on the subject of francophone arts and culture in minority communities and CBC/Radio-Canada’s linguistic obligations. Now that we are in urgent need of a more modern act, her powerful intervention and dedication are just as relevant and inspiring today as they were then.

That being said, perhaps Ms. Champagne’s most meaningful legacy was the creation of the Chez-nous des artistes, a residence for artists over 50, many of whom are financially insecure.

At a time when many elderly people are living in unacceptable precarity, when the living conditions of artists are increasingly unpredictable and when the recent victory of francophone parents in B.C. for French-language schools sadly brings to light the many challenges still faced by linguistic minorities in Canada, Ms. Andrée Champagne’s contribution to our country resonates strongly and will continue to inspire us for many years to come.

Thank you, Andrée Champagne.

Honourable senators, I would ask you to rise for a moment of silence in memory of our late colleague.